An auditor for the city of Hartford said he has no confidence that the kinds of protocol breaches that got the city treasurer and former finance director in trouble won't happen again.
A month ago, auditors issued a report saying that treasurer Adam Cloud and former finance director Julio Molleda ignored standard procedures when sending an emergency wire to troubled insurance broker Earl O'Garro. It turns out O'Garro took the money, but didn't do what he was supposed to with all of it.
In fact, O'Garro didn't pay $670,000 in insurance premiums on the city's behalf. Auditors also said Cloud had an apparent conflict of interest: he expedited the wire transfer to O'Garro, whose firm did business with Cloud's family. Now the feds are investigating.
On Wednesday, the city's audit commission met and discussed the report. If you have a minute, you should listen to the interchange between City Councilman Larry Deutsch and Deputy Chief Auditor Craig Trujillo:
If you don't have time to listen, here's the gist. Deutsch asked Trujillo if the protocols are better now than they were when this problem first came up. Trujillo said they are not. That's despite a new form in the treasurer's office that's meant to avoid this kind of problem.
John Droney, Cloud's attorney, told WNPR in an email:
"Once again, an unjustified attack on Adam Cloud. Adam, reacting to an emergency (threat of cancelation of policies for nonpayment) reached out to Finance director Julio Molleda who approved the wiring of funds with a warrant to follow."
